Winter Storm Watch for Saturday (Jan. 19)

All of the noise about the big weekend storm is drowning out tomorrow morning's possible delay producer, but that's not a terrible thing as this minor system seems to losing some of its steam as it inches toward the Berkshires out of the Ohio Valley.

We still may see a 1 or 2 inches by Friday morning, but the chance that it gives us 4 inches is dwindling. As we said yesterday, the cold air will make it hard for the moisture to get to the ground, and there isn't much liquid to work with anyway. So...we're not as pumped about widespread delays as we were earlier in the week.

The X factor tomorrow is the mindset of your Superintendent. Many Supers in the northern part of the County caught a lot of heat for last Wednesday's debacle (no fault of their own). The timing and the high rate of snow fall smack dab during the morning commute really made making the right call almost impossible. So, a few Supers may still be reeling from that episode and take a more delay-friendly approach. But it will still need to be snowing between 4 AM and 6 AM for that to happen and right now that's a definite maybe.

In other news you probably have heard about...a Winter Storm Watch was posted this morning for the weekend blockbuster. The Berkshires, especially North County, could be in the jackpot zone for this storm. Someone in New England is going to get 2 feet from this storm, and it could be us. We do not recommend you make any travel plans for Sunday.

As for timing, look for light snow around 5 PM on Saturday and then it's just going to pick up in intensity and finally let up late in the afternoon or early evening on Sunday. A tidy but powerful 24-hour storm. Sleet may mix in midday on Sunday.

Cleaning up all the snow is going to be made even more miserable because of the brutally cold temps on the back end of this storm. The high on Monday will be in the low single digits with some folks in the County not getting above 0 for the day. Throw in a steady 15-20 MPH wind and you have yourself dangerous conditions for warm-blooded mammals to be outside.

Here are some fun maps to tide you over until tomorrow's Map-o-Ganza. And tomorrow we'll be running the ol' GSD Delay and Cancellation list should we hear of any.

Image courtesy of Henry Margusity's Weather Madness blog.

NWS Albany